Back to school: Costs hit Northland families hard

The cost of sending kids back to school is putting pressure on families. Photo / File

Thousands of Northland students will start heading back to school from today as holidays come to end. The Northern Advocate is running three stories on the return as part of our back to school package. Here is our final story

A solo mum-of-two from Kaitaia says despite working two jobs she is only left with about $60 after paying her rent and bills.

So buying anything extra - including school supplies - is "bloody hard".

"There's so many other people that have it worse off, I just carry on. But there's always that thing in the back of your head where you're just over it all," she said.

The woman, who did not want to be named, works as a cleaner and teacher aide, and on some weekends she also works in a bar.

But after paying about $800 a fortnight on rent - plus bills and gas - she's left with about $60 a week.

"When I was in school I went through a lot of stuff with my family, so I didn't really go to school much. As a result of that I came out of school with no qualifications and getting a job with no qualifications, it's not as high pay as it would be if I had qualifications."

She said there have been times when she has needed to buy school supplies for her two children, aged 5 and 6, but did not have the money.

She recalled how her son's bag ended up with a big hole in it. He asked her for a new one but for that to happen she'd have to forgo food, which wasn't an option.

"But to him it's a big thing you know? You're going out there in front of all his friends and I didn't want him to get bullied or anything like that," she said.

"We sewed him a bag. He really liked it but I could see that he really wanted a new bag. It's little things like that, you never forget."

Last year her son's school applied for Variety sponsorship on her behalf - It was approved over lockdown.

She said she had "no money" because she couldn't work, so the sponsorship came at the perfect time.

"I had no money and they sent me $200 worth of Warehouse vouchers and I just went in there and got everything I needed to for my kids."

The woman said Variety was "very positive".

"When there's a lot of stuff going on, you'll get mail from them and it's all really positive stuff about your child. That means a lot as a parent."

Meanwhile, Whangārei Primary School, which recently received KidsCan support, is seeing more and more families who are struggling after last year's lockdown.

Kim Tavinor, Whangārei Primary School learning support coordinator, said there were many families at the school who were struggling financially.

"We had many families where they were working two or three jobs. Lots of those families either lost a job, most went on to the subsidy and that made it really, really challenging.

"When we did come back to school we noticed lots of sickness, lots of children who didn't get as much food as they normally did - lots of issues."

Tavinor said this time of year was particularly hard on families, as buying school supplies put pressure on whānau.

"I had a mum whose son, at intermediate, had no shoes. I organised with KidsCan and even though he's leaving us we got him some new shoes. Otherwise he wouldn't have had the right shoes, because she couldn't afford to buy them."

Tavinor said the KidsCan support had helped a lot.

The breakfast and lunch programme, which was initially paid for by the school, was now funded, and children had more food options to choose from. The charity also provides schools with shoes and jackets for students.

It also has a head lice treatment programme which Tavinor said was a "godsend" for families.

"All those things have been amazing. It's just basic health needs but they're really helping."

To support a child with back-to-school costs visit variety.org.nz.

KidsCan is also aiming to raise $350,000 to help support families with back-to-school costs. Visit www.backtoschool.org.nz for more information.